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Duplicity

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Tony Gilroy(2009)

119min

12 Certificate

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Review

Our Score

by Trevor Johnston

Old-fashioned star power from Julia Roberts and Clive Owen illuminates this snappy espionage caper, though it's never quite as clever as it should be. Former CIA agent Roberts and ex-MI6 spook Owen are a couple with a history, as their first encounter at the start of the movie proves. Years later, they are working in counter-intelligence for rival multinationals - ostensibly to help protect their latest products, but actually to scam their feuding employers (played gleefully by Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti) - and they're in love. Or at least they would be if they could trust one another. There are double-crosses, glamorous international locations and flirtatious dialogue aplenty, and the film spins an entertaining web that offers a jazzy modern take on 1960s caper yarns (much like the Ocean's Eleven franchise). Unfortunately, the elaborate plotting by writer/director Tony Gilroy (the Bourne trilogy, Michael Clayton) rather crowds out the fizz the story needs, though the potent chemistry of the stars at least means the time passes pleasantly.

Summary

A former CIA agent and an ex-MI6 officer find their romantic past catching up with them as they go head to head working in counter-intelligence for multinational corporations. As they try to outmanoeuvre each other to gain information about a lucrative product, they have difficulty maintaining a professional focus amid the sexual tension. Thriller, starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti.